Day: December 11, 2020

The U.S. added China’s biggest computer chipmaker SMIC to a blacklist of alleged Chinese military companies last week, a move that will further widen the gap between China’s chip technology and the rest of the world.Despite its status as the world’s factory, China has never figured out how to make advanced chips. In recent years, Beijing has been planning a series of sweeping government policies and pouring billions of dollars into the industry to fulfill its chip self-sufficiency goal.So far, under ever-tightening international export controls, however, the country has only found itself mired in some of the most embarrassing industrial failures in its recent history. Most notably, one of the nation’s most high-profile chipmakers was taken over by municipal authorities in its home city of Wuhan, and a Beijing-based chipmaker, the Tsinghua Unigroup, defaulted on a corporate bond.FILE – A Chinese microchip is seen through a microscope set up at the booth for the state-controlled Tsinghua Unigroup project which is driving China’s semiconductor ambitions during the 21st China Beijing International High-tech Expo in Beijing.In this highly internationally integrated industry, experts say, no country can manufacture chips on its own, and China’s efforts to develop its semiconductor sector remains out of reach.Highly globalized chainSemiconductor production is considered one of the most sophisticated manufacturing processes in the world, involving more than 50 disciplines. Billions of transistor structures must be built within a few millimeters.The core equipment used to manufacture computer chips includes lithography machines. A Dutch company called ASML is the only company in the world currently capable of producing high-end extreme ultraviolet lithography machines. Of its 17 core suppliers, though, more than half are from the United States, and the rest are companies located throughout Europe.The company is jointly owned by shareholders from dozens of countries. According to its official website, among the top three major shareholders, two are from the United States and one is from the United Kingdom. Capital Research and Management Co. is the largest shareholder, and the second largest is the BlackRock Group; both are in the U.S. Additionally, Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung also hold shares in ASML, allowing these two manufacturers to enjoy the priority right to purchase the machine.   In Bid to Rely Less on US, China Firms Stockpile Taiwan Tech HardwareChina wants to become technologically self-reliant in 10 years but needs help for nowWhile ASML may dominate the chipmaking machine market, it is only one part of the long chain in the industry. The lens of its lithography machine is manufactured by Zeiss of Germany, the laser technology is owned by Cymer of the United States, and a French company provides key valves.Jan-Peter Kleinhans, a senior researcher at the Berlin think tank New Responsibility Foundation and director of the Technology and Geopolitics Project, said no country can make chips without foreign companies’ technology. He told VOA in a telephone interview that it took ASML more than two decades to develop their machines, and “they rely themselves on a network of around 5,000 suppliers to build this machine.”Kleinhans said that without the participation of any one of these companies, the entire global semiconductor chain would break.Kobe Goldberg, a researcher at the New American Security Research Center, told VOA that what China is trying to do is to build a totally nationalized supply chain in a highly internationalized industry. “That is much more difficult in an industry like semiconductors since it is so internationally integrated.”John Lee, a senior researcher at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, a think tank in Germany, said several Chinese firms already have the capacity to manufacture or fabricate some semiconductors. But they can easily face a crackdown by the U.S. government since American companies have a very strong dominance in the upstream segment of the supply chain, such as chip design.
 Huawei’s Survival at Stake as US Sanctions LoomStarting Sept. 15, China’s telecom giant Huawei will be cut off from essential supplies of semiconductors and without those chips, Huawei cannot make smartphones or 5G equipment on which its business depends, business analysts say”The dominance of U.S.-origin technology in upstream sectors of the global semiconductor supply chain means that Chinese ICT [information and communications technology] firms across the board are exposed to U.S. export controls, regardless of what happens to SMIC or Huawei as individual companies,” Lee added.Multilateral export controlThe multilateral export control implemented by democratic countries can be traced back to the informal multilateral regime called the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom).  Established in 1949, the 17-member organization, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France and Australia, attempted to coordinate controls over the export of strategic materials and technology to communist countries. In 1952, a separate group was established to scrutinize exports to China.US Imposes Curbs on Exports by China’s Top Chipmaker SMICNew Commerce Department requirements mean American suppliers of certain technology products to SMIC must apply for individual licenses before they can exportAlthough CoCom ceased to function on March 31, 1994, the list of prohibited items it formulated was later inherited by another multilateral export agreement, the Wassenaar Arrangement, which was signed in 1996. As many as 42 European, American and Asian countries joined the program, which allows member states to exercise control over their own technology exports, and China is again included in the list of targeted countries.Last December, the group reached an agreement to add chip manufacturing technology to the list of items subject to export controls.  While this revision does not explicitly target China, it points out that export restrictions are targeted at nonmember states, while China, along with Iran and North Korea, are not member states. Some Chinese observers called the jointly implemented move a “collective action” against China by countries that dominate the chip manufacturing supply chain.The Bureau of Industrial Security of the U.S. Commerce Department also announced in October of this year that six emerging technologies would be included in a new export control under the Wassenaar Agreement. All these technologies are directly related to chip manufacturing, including extreme ultraviolet lithography necessary for advanced chip manufacturing.Martijn Rasser, a senior researcher at the Center for New American Security’s Technology and National Security Project, told VOA the world’s liberal democracies have a huge advantage in their network of alliances and partnerships, adding: “It’s something that China just completely lacks, and that’s a big, a big headwind for them.”
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White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Friday pressed Food and Drug Administration chief Stephen Hahn to grant an emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine by the end of the day or face possible firing, two administration officials said.The vaccine produced by Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech won a critical endorsement Thursday from an FDA panel of outside advisers, and signoff from the agency — which is expected within days — is the next step needed to get the shots to the public.US On Verge of Launching COVID VaccinationsFood and Drug Administration has approved vaccine by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech The FDA is not required to follow the guidance of its advisory committees, but often does.Meadows spoke to Hahn by telephone on Friday, according to a senior administration official who was familiar with the conversation but was not authorized to discuss private conversations.Hahn disputed characterizations of his conversation with Meadows.The chief of staff also told Hahn his job was in jeopardy if the emergency use authorization was not issued before Saturday, said a second administration official familiar with the conversation.
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The head of the European Union’s medical agency confirmed Friday it had been the subject of a cyberattack for the past two weeks but said it will not impact its ongoing evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines.The cyberattack was originally announced Wednesday, with the agency providing few details. During an online meeting with the European Parliament, European Medicines Agency (EMA) executive director, Emer Cooke, said the agency had “launched a full investigation in close cooperation with the law enforcement officials and other relevant entities.”In a brief statement on its website, Pfizer partner BioNTech said it had been informed that some of the documents related to regulatory submission for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, which has been stored on an EMA server, had been “unlawfully accessed.” The company said it did not believe any personal data of trial participants had been compromised.Cooke said Friday, “We can assure you that the timelines for the evaluation of the COVID-19 vaccines and treatments are not impacted. And the agency as you see today continues to be fully functional.”The Amsterdam–based agency is evaluating the Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine already approved by Britain and Canada, as well as the vaccine candidate from Moderna. The agency said it will make a decision on conditional approval at a meeting to be held by December 29, while a decision on Moderna’s version should follow by January 12.Cooke said based on the data for the two vaccines so far, “the safety and efficacy look very promising, and we have not seen the adverse events coming up that would be a concern.”Earlier this week, Cooke said the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca is also being considered but complete data for that vaccine has not yet been submitted. 
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The World Health Organization (WHO) says action and money are needed to ensure coronavirus vaccines are available around the world as Western nations approve them.
During Friday’s COVID-19 briefing at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus applauded the fact Britain was already vaccinating its citizens and that Canada, the United states and others would not be far behind. He said to have safe and effective vaccines for a virus that was completely unknown a year ago is an “astounding scientific achievement.”
The WHO chief noted it would be an even greater achievement to ensure all countries have equal access to those vaccines. Tedros said the U.N. agency has worked hard over the past year to secure political commitments from world leaders for equal access to vaccines and he said he wants to see those commitments translated into action.  
He said the WHO needs $4.3 billion to procure vaccines for the world’s neediest countries and urged donors to help fill a funding gap.  
The director-general said the organization is working with its partners to ensure developing countries have infrastructure in place to deliver vaccines to their populations. Through its COVAX vaccine cooperative and the 189 countries participating, Tedros said the WHO has secured nearly a billion doses of three potential vaccines.  Americans Await Final Approval of First COVID-19 Vaccine as Deaths Reach Record HighUS Food and Drug Administration widely expected to authorize emergency use after special panel votes to recommend approval   But Tedros said closing the funding gap is crucial to ensuring the entire world is protected.
“We have all seen images of people being vaccinated against COVID-19. We want to see these same images all over the world, and that will be a true sign of solidarity,” he said Friday.
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Getting a COVID test can mean long lines and delayed results. Matt Dibble looks into recent breakthroughs that may have more of us performing a test at home.
Camera: Matt Dibble       Producer: Matt Dibble
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The United States could be hours away from starting its COVID-19 vaccination program. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reportedly could authorize on Friday or Saturday the emergency use of a COVID-19 vaccine produced by U.S. drug maker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. An FDA advisory panel voted to recommend approval of the vaccine late Thursday. With the U.S. on the verge of its inoculation program, human rights group Amnesty International’s director of economic and social justice issued a warning.  Steve Cockburn told The New York Times, “Rich countries have clear human rights obligations not only to refrain from actions that could harm access to vaccines elsewhere, but also to cooperate and provide assistance to countries that need it.”Food and Drug Administration building is shown Dec. 10, 2020 in Silver Spring, Md.The Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center said early Friday there are 69.7 million worldwide COVID-19 infections, with 1.6 million deaths. The U.S. continues to lead the world in the number of cases with 15.6 million infections, followed by India with 9.7 million and Brazil with 6.7 million. Robert Redfield, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said for the next two or three months, the virus in the U.S. could kill as many people every day who died during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the U.S. or the Pearl Harbor attack of December 7, 1941. A health care worker at LAC USC Medical Center swabs a person at a drive-through testing center during the coronavirus outbreak, in Los Angeles, California, Dec. 10, 2020.The daily U.S. death toll passed the 3,000 mark for the first time on Wednesday.Elsewhere, Australia has abandoned a massive order for a locally produced COVID-19 vaccine after it was discovered that the vaccine was producing false positive HIV results during a trial. 
And Germany’s interior minister says his country needs to go into a lockdown now to stop the spread of COVID-19. Horst Seehofer told Der Spiegel magazine, “The only chance to regain control of the situation is a lockdown, but this must happen immediately. If we wait until Christmas, we’ll have to struggle with high numbers for months.” 
 
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British health officials are warning that people with a “significant history” of allergic reactions should not receive the new coronavirus vaccine that was rolled out in a mass vaccination program Tuesday, pending investigation of two adverse reactions.  Britian is the first western country to begin the mass vaccinations, as Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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Clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Australia’s University of Queensland in partnership with biotech company CSL have been abandoned after participants returned false positive HIV test results. The treatment was a key part of Australia’s response to the pandemic, and the government had signed a deal to buy 51 million doses.Vaccines typically take years of painstaking research to develop, but COVID-19 has sent scientists around the world racing to find an effective treatment.The Australian government was no different, but it has announced the sudden termination of clinical trials of a vaccine being developed at the University of Queensland.A small component of the experimental drug was derived from the human immunodeficiency virus, also known as HIV. It is used to give the vaccine stability, helping it to recognize and then neutralize the coronavirus. Some participants recorded false positive HIV test results. Researchers have stressed that the treatments are harmless and do not expose patients to the risk of disease.Biotech giant CSL, which has worked alongside the university team in Queensland, has insisted the vaccine had a “strong safety profile.”Phase one clinical trials involving 216 people began in July. Phases two and three have been canceled.The University of Queensland vaccine was one of four potential coronavirus treatments secured by the Australian government for potential use next year, including the Oxford University-AstraZeneca drug.“At no stage we believed all four of those vaccines would likely get through that process,” said Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. “If that had occurred that would have been truly extraordinary based on the process of vaccine development not only in this country but anywhere else. So, that is why we spread our risk. The advice we have received is that the University of Queensland vaccine will not be able to proceed based on the scientific advice and that will no longer feature as part of Australia’s vaccine plan.”Morrison said the decision to end the trial should give “Australians great assurance that we are proceeding carefully” toward a COVID-19 vaccine.But some experts fear it could damage public confidence in the inoculation program.The government has said Australia’s vaccine agreements will be enough to cover the entire population of 25 million people, even if one or two candidates proved unsuccessful.Australia has recorded 28,000 coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, and 908 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
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A US government advisory panel on Thursday recommended emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, which meant Americans could begin being vaccinated as soon as this weekend. Earlier this week, the country recorded its highest death toll from COVID-19, with more than 3,100 deaths in a single day. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
Producer: Kim Weeks
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Getting a COVID test can mean long lines and delayed results. Matt Dibble looks into recent breakthroughs that may have more of us performing a test at home.
Camera: Matt Dibble       Producer: Matt Dibble
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The United Nations’ World Food Program was awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize in a virtual ceremony Thursday. As Henry Ridgwell reports, the head of the organization warned that hundreds of millions of people are facing starvation around the world, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. 
Camera: Henry Ridgwell   Produced by: Mary Cieslak 
 
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